Sfyr  Saugbtprfl  nf  llagar 

A JUra  for  tljr  Homrtt  of  Arabia 


Mrs.  i’amupl  fH.  Zrormpr 


WOMAN’S  BOARD  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 
Reformed  Church  In  America 
25  East  22d  Street  New  York  City 


ISSUED  APRIL,  1910- 


THE  ONLY  WELL  OF  SWEET  WATER  ON  THE  ISLAND  OF  BAHREIN. 


iaiujltters  of  ©agar. 

A for  tlje  Uumni  ot  Arabia. 

Mrs.  Samuel  M.  Zvvemer. 

The  position  of  woman,  due  to  Islam,  is  the  chief  reason  for 
the  present  backward  state  of  Arabia.  Man  is  first  and  last,  and 
is  lord  and  owner  of  the  women  and  girls  in  his  household.  “Her 
marital  rights  are  scouted,  while,  as  a rule,  her  marital  duties  are 
jealously  exacted.” 

Dr.  Dennis  says:  “One  of  the  most  conspicuous  insignia  of 

false  religious  systems  is  their  treatment  of  women.  Men  seem 
to  be  bewildered  and  undone  by  her  very  existence.”  Islam  is 
no  exception ; many  of  their  proverbs  show  the  spirit  in  which 
they  regard  women.  “A  slave,  a drudge  and  a disgrace,  a temp- 
tation and  a terror,  a blemish  and  a burden,  at  once  the  touch- 
stone and  stumbling  block  of  human  systems,  the  sign  and  shame 
of  the  non-Christian  world.”  How  would  it  feel  to  have  this 
description  applied  to  you? 

HER  CONDITION. 

You  can  imagine  the  condition  of  such  a one.  She  has  no  lib- 
erty to  go  where  she  will,  but  is  shut  up  in  a zenana  or  harem, 
not  allowed  any  intellectual  culture,  she  must  not  be  taught  to 
read  or  write — it  is  both  dangerous  and  unnecessary.  Physically, 
spiritually,  morally,  she  is  demoralized,  she  is  kept  a prisoner, 
she  is  beaten  without  restraint,  neglected  when  sick,  or  worse 
than  neglected,  she  undergoes  many  things  at  the  hands  of  igno- 
rant native  practitioners.  She  is  married  at  a tender  age,  other 
wives  are  brought  in,  they  may  be  friends  and  live  in  friendly  re- 
lation, but  it  is  more  than  possible  they  will  not ; therefore, 
whenever  possible  the  husband  will  have  separate  establishments 
for  each  one.  The  sexes  are  not  permitted  to  meet  socially;  the 
men’s  and  women’s  quarters  in  a house  are  entirely  separate,  and 


if  a woman  is  sick  or  in  trouble,  no  male  physician  may  give 
relief,  it  would  be  a disgrace,  and  so  the  necessity  of  woman’s 
work  for  women. 

The  general  ignorance  of  the  people  as  to  hygiene,  sanitation, 
medical  treatment,  does  lead  to  untold  suffering,  especially  to 
women.  Cases  could  be  indefinitely  multiplied  of  their  treat- 
ment, or  want  of  it,  with  much  unnecessary  suffering  and  loss  of 
life.  Many  a limb,  and  member  and  life,  might  have  been  saved 
if  knowledge  had  been  theirs.  A prescription  for  ophthalmia  in 
one  district  is,  black  pepper,  collyrium,  and  vinegar,  made  into  a 


VILLAGE  TOURING. 


paste  and  rubbed  on  the  conjunctiva.  If  the  patient  retains  the 
sight  it  is  the  “will  of  God,’’  if  it  is  lost,  the  same  fatalistic  faith 
holds  good.  Dust  from  the  roadside  shaken  on  an  ulcer  is  ex- 
pected to  cure  it — “if  God  wills”;  a few  verses  from  the  Koran 
written  on  paper  and  then  washed  off  into  a cup  of  water  and 
taken  internally  will  cure  a bad  attack  of  malaria. 


Their  empty  lives  and  minds  are  a call  for  enlightenment,  their 
superstitions  also  are  a plea  for  something  to  help  them;  their 
physical  sufferings  need  intelligent  aid ; their  sins  need  our 
Saviour.  Work  for  women  on  the  east  coast  of  Arabia  was 
begun  June  I,  1896,  and  has  been  steadily  growing  in  each  sta- 
tion until  now  we  have  hospital  accommodation  and  dispen- 
saries for  women,  small  primary  schools  and  Sunday  schools  for 
girls,  with  regular  Bible  teaching  and  reading.  We  have  faith 
and  hope  that  in  the  near  future  broader  and  higher  educational 
work  will  be  started  among  the  girls  and  women.  A thirst  for 
knowledge  must  first  be  created;  women  must  learn  self-respect 
before  they  rise  to  any  desire  for  intellectual  knowledge.  Their 
very  thought  will  have  to  be  turned  over  and  right  side  up ; they 
are  still  in  the  “dark  ages,”  consigned  and  kept  there  by  their 
male  relations  and  owners.  The  continual  dropping  of  water  on 
a very  hard  rock  will  wear  it  away  in  time.  And  so  our  lady- 
workers  continue  to  sow  the  seed — on  tours  by-  donkey',  by  boat 
and  on  foot,  visiting  the  women  in  their  homes  in  the  villages, 
inviting  and  receiving  them  into  their  own  homes,  teaching  them 
in  school  and  dispensary — the  aim  is  always  the  same — to  bring 
them  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  alone  can  raise  them  up  and 
purify  them. 

Here  is  what  one  of  the  workers  on  tour  in  the  villages  writes : 
“At  the  first  halting  place  we  alight  from  the  donkey',  right  at  the 
door  of  the  schoolmaster’s  house.  He  politely  receives  us  and 
dismisses  the  scholars  and  places  the  schoolroom  at  our  dis- 
posal. The  news  is  quickly  spread  abroad  that  a foreign  woman 
has  come  and  into  the  hut  the  women  and  children  flock.  They 
are  rather  timid  and  shy  at  first,  but  I take  my  sun  hat  off 
and  begin  to  place  my  medicine  bottles  in  order,  tonic,  cough 
mixture,  eye  lotion,  liniment,  etc.  As  I look  up  about  thirty' 
women  or  more  have  crowded  in  the  small  room.  First  of  all, 
when  there  is  a lull  in  the  conversation,  I tell  them  ‘I  am  your 
friend,  I have  come  to  do  you  good,  just  listen  to  the  words 
from  God’s  Book;  then,  after  reading  and  explanation,  comes 
the  medical  treatment.’  ” 

In  the  schools  the  pupils  are  irregular  in  their  attendance.  A 
missionary  writes  after  being  in  the  school  a few  months : “Sev- 
eral of  the  girls  have  been  married  since  I took  the  school.  It 


seems  perfectly  ridiculous  to  think  of  these  children  having  hus- 
bands. One  evening  not  long  ago,  I heard  crying  in  the  huts 
near  the  Mission  house  and  inquired  and  found  that  it  was  a 
wife  (one  of  the  school  girls) , being  beaten  by  her  husband.  When 
she  came  to  school  a few  days  later  her  person  bore  abundant 
marks  of  the  treatment  she  had  received.  These  poor  children 
have  very  little  idea  of  what  real  love  is.  Another  little  girl  of 


WAITING  ROOM  IN  HOSPITAL. 


about  twelve  has  been  divorced,  and  still  another  of  about  eigh- 
teen years  was  married  to  a man  who  I found  out  afterwards 
was  her  fourth  husband;  one  had  died,  two  former  husbands 
had  divorced  her.”  Of  such  material  are  the  girls  who  come  to 
us  to  be  taught,  but  I know  that  the  few  hours  they  spend  in  the 
school  are  oases  in  very  desert  lives  and  the  love  and  care  shown 
them  are  not  lost,  neither  are  the  Scripture  verses  and  hymns 
which  they  learn. 


Of  the  need  of  medical  work  among  women  there  is  no  doubt. 
Read  what  one  of  the  women  doctors  wrote : “During  the  two 
weeks  I have  been  here  we  have  had  twenty  operations  on  the 
eye,  one  amputation,  the  removal  of  a large  tumor,  and  numer- 
ous teeth  extractions.  In  medicine  we  have  had  pleurisy,  pneu- 
monia, tuberculosis,  tetanus,  smallpox,  leprosy,  paraplegia,  dif- 
ferent varieties  of  heart  lesions,  and  other  interesting  cases.” 
And  back  of  this  list  of  diseases  how  much  suffering  there  is, 
only  a doctor  could  explain.  And  the  patients  come  for  treat- 
ment when  the  disease  is  far  advanced  and  every  remedy  known 
to  them  has  been  tried. 


All  these  lines  of  work  are  so  many  opportunities  for  a woman 
to  present  the  Gospel  to  women.  We  are  laying  a train  of 
dynamite,  as  it  were ; suffering  womanhood  awaits  the  skill  of  the 
woman  physician ; dying  souls  need  the  message  of  love,  which 
she  only  can  give.  There  are  opportunities  for  teachers  and 
evangelists  who  will  train  the  young  and  teach  them  to  live 
pure  lives  and  to  carry  the  light  into  homes  and  lives  darkened 
by  sin  and  superstition.  And  we  ask  you  who  “stay  by  the  stuff” 
to  watch  and  pray  with  us  until  the  nation  is  “born  again.” 


When  Garibaldi  drew  up  his  ragged  and  defeated  troops  under 
the  wall  of  Rome  in  1849,  he  said : “Soldiers,  I have  nothing  to 
offer  you  but  hunger  and  thirst,  hardship  and  death;  but  I call 
on  all  who  love  their  country  to  join  with  me.”  And  they  joined 
him  by  the  hundreds.  He  appealed  to  their  love.  The  appeal  of 
Christ  to  His  Church  is  still  “Lovest  thou  Me?”  May  the  love 
of  Christ  constrain  us  to  see  the  very  forms  and  hear  the  very 
cry  of  these  daughters  of  Hagar. 

“Sorrowful  women’s  faces,  hungry,  yearning; 

Wild  with  despair,  or  dark  with  sin  and  dread, 

Worn  with  long  weeping  for  the  unreturning, 

Hopeless,  uncomforted. 

Dear  Heart  of  Love,  canst  Thou  forgive  the  blindness 
That  let  Thy  child  sit  selfish  and  at  ease 
By  the  full  table  of  Thy  loving  kindness, 

And  take  no  thought  for  these? 

As  Thou  hast  loved  me,  let  me  love,  returning 
To  these  dark  souls  the  grace  Thou  givest  me ; 

And  oh,  to  me  impart  Thy  deathless  yearning 
To  draw  the  lost  to  Thee !” 


